An introduction to Google’s progressive web apps

Today, more people use the internet on their phones than they do on laptops, which is why Google has spent years trying to improve the mobile internet experience. For many years, it only had limited success, but now it seems like its efforts are finally paying off.

Google has recently launched a programming movement called ‘progressive web apps’, which is often abbreviated to PWA. PWAs were promoted at the Google I/O web developer conference, and they make browsing the web much easier – they load websites faster, some pages can still be used when there’s no internet connection and download speeds are faster.

This makes it easier for people to use website such as Twitter. While the internet on mobile phones is still impressive, it can be frustrating trying to open a new link or scroll through an article.

This is because most websites are optimised for desktop devices, rather than mobiles. With PWAs, however, the same websites become more optimised for mobiles. One prime example is ‘Twitter Lite’, which launched on mobile devices earlier this year. Already, the website is being used 50% more than the original version on mobile devices, and it runs 30% faster. Users seem happier too – when they use it, they view around 60% more pages before leaving!

But why is the Lite version better? According to Dusted, Twitter Lite is specifically designed to be used by mobile devices rather than desktops, and therefore saves around 40% of data usage. This is ideal for those people who love using the internet on their phone but worry about charges.

While PWAs are a promising sign for the future, it is likely that you will still be using your current internet and apps for a while longer. However, the apps will certainly become more common, as mobile internet is so popular nowadays.

If you want to check out Twitter Lite, you can – but you will need to be using an Android device, as the full PWA experience isn’t currently available on iPhones.